


let it go free

by doc_pickles



Series: TS x Jolex Week [7]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Family Feels, Part 2 from Folklore Day, TSxJolex Week, a taylor swift lyric for a title again? must be a day that ends in Y, jolex babies, yall thought i was done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26189389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doc_pickles/pseuds/doc_pickles
Summary: Your kiss, my cheekI watched you leaveYour smile, my ghostI fell to my kneesWhen you're young, just to runBut you come back to what you need(Song: This Love)
Relationships: Alex Karev/Jo Wilson Karev
Series: TS x Jolex Week [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1892239
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: jolex x taylor swift week





	let it go free

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Fact: This…. might be my favorite fic from the week. Listening to this song and thinking about any incarnation of Jolex made me super emotional. Post 16x16, I’m constantly hoping that Jo and Alex will someday get back together, but I feel like that’s a long shot. And an added last day bonus: IT’S A SEQUEL!  
> This follows up my AU folklore fic from Friday (you didn’t think I’d leave that hanging did you??) and I am, for lack of better terms, JAZZED ABOUT IT! We get to see Jo a few years in the future and her new life without Alex in it. Without further ado, the fic that got WILDLY out of hand.

Almost six years on, Jo can still feel his lips ghosting over her neck, whispering how much she meant to him. His hands running up her leg, hers tangled in his hair, the soft curl a familiar comfort beneath her fingers. The way his fingers would always skim over her arm, the slightest touch that always signaled an unspoken promise between the two young lovers. 

_ “Mama!” _

The small voice rouses Jo from her daydream, eyes flicking down to her son who’s impatiently tugging at her shirt. Compliments from older women at the grocery store and nosy waitresses always echo that Benji looks so much like Jo, but her eyes can only ever pick out his father's features in his little face. His deep brown eyes a few shades darker than her own, the way his hair had a cowlick in the same place, the crooked smile that came out when he was really excited.

“Hey baby, you ready to go?”

“I got my Batman sneakers on mama,” Benji pointed to his feet, his crooked grin showing in all its glory. “I’m ready for the day!”

Picking her son up, Jo compliments his shoes and walks into the garage, settling Benji into his car seat and letting out a loud sigh. Someday it wouldn’t hurt so much to look at her son and see her lost love. But today… oh today it hurt. 

The bright, sunny days were when Jo found her mind drifting to her lost love the most. Memories of their long summer days by the lake and in the diner throwing longing glances over unassuming customers heads. Their long nights under the stars and late night drives to see midnight showings of the newest movies. Thankfully Seattle offered sunny days few and far between, but today the sun and it’s scorching heat seemed to pulse through every step Jo took.

“Okay baby,” Jo pasted on her best mom face as she pulled out onto the street. “What are you gonna do at the park today?”

“I wanna do the monkey bars, I can do them mama,” Jo looked into the rearview mirror for a moment, watching as Benji lifted his arms up into a superhero pose. “I gots big muscles! I been practicing so I can finally go all the way across this time.”

Benji’s enthusiasm for life and all the little wonders it held were never lost on Jo, making the days like this one that much easier. Though she hadn’t gotten her happy ending with Benji’s father, having her son come out of their short romance was more than enough of a prize to Jo.

“Well, I think you’ll be happy to hear that the monkey bars are open and waiting for you,” Jo mused as they pulled up to the park. “You gotta be careful though Benji, you almost gave me a heart attack last time you tried. If mama says no more, then no more. Got it?”   
Benji nodded his agreement as Jo unbuckled him and let him run towards the playground. The stifling humidity made her glad that she had opted for a pair of shorts and a tank top instead of her normal jeans and t-shirt. Thankfully, the park wasn’t too crowded which made it easy for Jo to watch from a bench as Benji climbed to the monkey bars and began to swing cautiously from one bar to the next. 

“Be careful Benji,” Jo watched a little blonde girl run past Benji’s feet, laughing as she ran from whoever was chasing her. “Don’t kick anyone else!” 

The momentary distraction caused Benji to look from his hands to the ground, feet swinging wildly as he tried to stop himself from moving so much. Jo watched in slow motion horror as Benji’s fingers slipped from the bar above him, his tiny body hurtling towards the ground at an odd angle. He hit the tanbark below him with a thud, a loud cry coming from him as Jo rushed over to her son. 

“Baby! It’s okay, show mommy where it hurts bubba,” Jo cringed inwardly as Benji pointed to his arm, now twisted and sitting at an odd angle. “Okay, mama's gonna make you feel all better Benji. And maybe take you to the ER… Happy freaking Friday.”

Benji let out another loud cry as Jo tried to figure out the best way to get him in the car without causing a massive scene or another meltdown. As she was brainstorming, the sun streaming down onto her face was blocked by someone standing in front of her. 

“Sorry to bother you ma'am, but maybe I can help? I’m a pediatric surgeon, I can take a look at your son if you don’t mind,” the man standing in front of her reached down and offered his hand, but Jo froze in place as she stared at it. Resting on the man’s wrist was a watch.  _ The watch.  _ The leather band was worn, tarnished at the edges and the silver watch face was scuffed in places. But she’d know that watch anywhere. “Ma’am?”

Jo’s eyes flitted upwards, her heart beating out of time as she locked eyes with the man she’d thought about everyday for almost six years. His eyes widened in shock as he stared at her, just as surprised that they were standing face to face once again. His hair was growing in some grays already and his eyes looked tired, but there was no doubt about it: the man in front of Jo was Alex Karev, the father of her child. 

Her child who was currently screaming bloody murder. 

“Mommy it hurts! I think my arm is gonna fall off,” Jo’s eyes turned back to Benji who had big teardrops staining his cheeks. “It hurts mama!”

Jo could feel the tension in the situation rising, her anxiety building like a crooked block tower in her chest, just waiting to topple over. She knew what was running through Alex’s mind as he looked between her and Benji. She wanted to run, she wanted to go back to this morning and never leave her bed. But Alex was still staring in a quiet awe and Benji was crying and Jo just knew that she’d have to be the one to move, she would have to be the one that broke the silence of this unexpected moment. 

“Ummm Benji, this is Doctor Alex. He’s gonna look at your arm and help you out,” Jo took a steadying breath as she leaned back from her son, letting Alex kneel next to him and ask questions. 

Tears welled in her eyes as Jo watched Alex talk in low voices to Benji, making jokes about superheroes as he checked over his arm. Did he know? Did Alex know that the little boy whose arm he was holding was actually his son? Jo paused for a moment, wondering silently why Alex was at a playground. Did he have kids? Was he married and happy with someone else? Jo eyed his left hand, noticing that he wasn’t wearing a ring.

“Well Benji, I think you broke your arm when you tumbled off the monkey bars,” Alex turned to Jo, eyes watching her carefully. “You’re gonna have to take him in to set it and get a cast. Grey Sloan is just around the corner, they’ll take good care of him.”

Jo nodded, looking from Alex’s dark eyes to Benji’s. Sitting side by side, she could tell more than ever that the two were almost identical. Heart stuttering, she took a steadying breath and let herself relish the moment.

They locked eyes for a second longer, Jo’s mind instantly wandering to a beat up pickup truck on a backroad states away. She can hear Alex’s laugh, feel his hands cupping her face, can almost smell the greasy diner she worked in. And in one split second, everything melts away and she’s back in Seattle, her son still crying in her arms and the little blonde girl from earlier calling for her ‘Uncle Alex’ to come play tag with her. 

Jo’s gathering Benji in her arms then, Alex is walking towards a small huddle of children, and the moment is gone. She doesn’t know if she’ll see him again, but there’s a small part of her that even after all these years is filled with hope.

+

“Okay Benji, Doctor Lincoln is gonna let you pick out a color for your cast now,” Jo kissed her son's head comfortingly, her eyes flicking to the doorway where she saw Alex standing. “I’m gonna go talk to Doctor Alex for a minute.”

Jo slipped away from Benji, the blonde doctor treating him cracking a joke that brought a peel of laughter from the little boy. After rushing to Grey Sloan with Benji still screaming in her ear, Jo hadn’t had a single second to dwell on what had happened at the park. It wasn’t until she saw Alex loitering in the hallway that her brain had caught up to speed and the urge to vomit overcame her. He knew, after six years Alex finally knew that he had a son. Jo didn’t know whether to feel relieved or terrified at the revelation, and her body seemed to be in flux just as much as her brain was. 

“Hey, I uh didn’t want to intrude but I wanted to see how he was doing,” Alex nervously rubbed the back of his head, eyes looking at his shoes instead of up at Jo as she stood in front of him. “And I didn’t know how else to find you without breaking HIPPA laws and possibly losing my medical license.”

Jo laughed then, for a moment forgetting where they were and seeing a younger version of Alex in front of her cracking jokes as they sipped off a bottle of wine. She looked back to Benji momentarily, before turning back to Alex and meeting his eyes.

“He’s yours, Benji is yours. I mean I’m guessing you know because you’re here but… you probably wanted to hear it from me,” Jo studied Alex, noting that he didn’t look all that shocked by her revelation. So he had seen the similarities too. “I looked for you for months and I couldn’t find you. And then one day, it wasn’t important anymore where you were, or it was more important than ever. But it didn’t matter because you weren’t there and I had no idea where to find you.”

Jo had turned her back to Alex, both of them watching Benji as he laughed with Dr. Lincoln. She was scared, more than she had ever been while she was pregnant or when she gave birth or even when she held Benji in her arms for the first time and felt like she had no idea what she was doing. She was terrified about what Alex would say to her, what he would ask or try to fight her on. For some reason though, Jo was most scared that Alex would leave again.

“I wanna see him, if that’s okay with you,” Jo could practically hear Alex’s heart rate pick up as he asked her the one question she knew had been on his mind since they had seen each other again. “I shouldn’t have left you like I did, but I swear if I’d known… I’m a different man now, Jo. And the last thing I wanna do is hurt either of you.”

“I know… I know that if you had known you would’ve done right by us, I can’t fault you for something you didn’t know about,” Jo’s eyes are still watching Benji, but her hand reaches out blindly for Alex, fingers running over the beat up wrist watch before sliding down and grabbing his hand, squeezing it gently. “I want you to see him, I won’t stop you. You’re a good man Alex, I have no doubt you’ll be a good father too.”


End file.
